Contents

The TARDIS crew members have taken a break from their adventures and are enjoying a well-deserved rest in a luxury villa on the outskirts of Imperial Rome.

But in the gory grandeur that is Rome, things don't stay quiet for long. If the time-travellers can save themselves from being sold as slaves, assassinated by classical hit-men, poisoned by the evil Locusta, thrown to the lions, maimed in the arena and drowned in a shipwreck, they still have to face the diabolical might of the mad Emperor Nero.

As if that isn't enough, they also discover that, although Rome wasn't built in a day, it was burnt down in considerably less time...

Rather than write a straightforward narrative, Cotton chose to write this novelisation in the form of letters and journal entries.

Ascaris continues to appear in the second half of the story, accidentally killing the Centurion, being pursued into the arena by lions unwittingly unleashed by the Doctor during Ian and Delos' gladiatorial fight, and fleeing Rome during the Great Fire, with the epilogue stating he is currently working on Hadrian's Wall and could be blamed for the fire. The novelisation also makes him a legionary first class and Locusta's son.

Other characters have their parts reduced: Sevcheria disappears after recapturing Ian and Delos in Rome, Locusta's death is omitted, Delos departs after the gladiatorial fight and Tavius only meets the Doctor briefly, with his status as a Christian and conspirator against Nero only established in the epilogue.

The Doctor encounters Barbara at the palace and bustles her and Ian away from the scene when Nero and Poppaea are distracted by the lions he released earlier, before accidentally starting the fire himself by dropping the burning plans into the sewer.